Wild Uplands

• Four new contemporary installations by national and international artists have been installed across Penistone Hill Country Park as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture
• Music from Bradford-born Delius will also feature as part of an immersive sound walk alongside new works from three international composers

The moors of Penistone Hill Country Park, one of Bradford’s greatest sites of natural beauty, is the setting for Wild Uplands – a series of new contemporary artworks created by national and international artists commissioned for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, which transform the area into an open-air gallery, from 24 May – 12 October 2025. 

Four artists have been invited to create new public art installations in response to the dramatic and untamed landscape of the North Pennines and the industrial heritage of the quarries which once operated here.

The four new artworks have been installed across Penistone Hill Country Park for the public to discover as they walk across the moors, located high above Haworth – home of the Brontë sisters. The parks windswept moorlands and panoramic views were the backdrop to many of the Brontë’s most-loved novels and have since inspired generations of artists, writers, and filmmakers.

• Pakistani-born artist Meherunnisa Asad in collaboration with Peshawar-based atelier Studio Lél, known for reviving centuries-old stone-work techniques, will create a vast installation contrasting with the rugged terrain of Penistone Hill composed of an abundance of intricate butterflies carved from pink marble sourced from Pakistan, inspired by Bradford’s stories of migration and movement and the resilience of its natural landscape.  
  
• Brazilian-born, London-based artist Vanessa da Silva will create a series of colourful, 5-metre-high interactive sculptures inspired by natural forms and plants found across the park, reflecting how nature at Penistone Hill has adapted and transformed over the years. The sculptures will offer a space for people to gather, rest and connect with the landscape.
• Inspired by the tale of the Cottingley Fairies of 1917, when two Yorkshire girls created life-like cutouts of fairies which ignited debate about reality and imagination, scientific reason and spiritual belief, Berlin based Monira Al Qadiri will create sculptures of creatures reflecting on the interplay between fact and fiction.
• UK-artist Steve Messam will create a 10m high tower exploring the natural building blocks of Bradford, reflecting on how the city of Bradford has been physically shaped by the natural landscape which surrounds it. The tower is inspired by stone drawn from the quarry of the country park and clad in the fleece of local sheep breeds, drawing on the role of wool in the industrial heritage of the district.

As well as outdoor sculptures, Wild Uplands also features an immersive sound walk Earth & Sky, commissioned in partnership with Opera North. Using geolocation technology via a phone app, this ever-changing sound work will develop as visitors walk through the park, with sounds triggered by their journey through the landscape. Created by three international composers; the Italian Caterina Barbieri, Kenyan Nyokabi Kariũki and Welsh Gwen Siôn, the new sound work brings together a diverse range of musical influences with field recordings from the local area, poetry by Nabeelah Hafeez, and pieces by Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius, performed by the Orchestra of Opera North.